Poo-free? Not me!

MNN family blogger's one-week adventure to ditch shampoo for a 'poo-free do.

Last week I decided to embark on an adventure ... a shampoo-free adventure. My inspritation came after reading the MNN article Bubble Trouble. In the post, the author ditches shampoo altogether and "she (and her gorgeous new hair) never looked back."

Less work for better hair? Sounded good to me. Oh, and the added perk of saving the planet by avoiding all of those plastic shampoo bottles and keeping the shampoo runoff out of the waterways sounded pretty good, too.

Let me give you a little background to my adventure. I don't have great hair. I never have. It's not really wavy, not really straight ... more pouffy than anything else. It's never been shiny in that gorgeous hair kind of way (more in that greasy, unwashed kind of way!) So while I have heard before about people forgoing shampoo, I never really thought it would work for me. Still, I just couldn't resist the allure of the "glossy, sexy hair" mentioned in Bubble Trouble. And as it turns out, I was right the first time.

I decided to give the experiment one week, because it seemed a reasonable amount of time to let the natural oils in my scalp and hair regulate to their new poo-free luster. Here's a breakdown of my 'poo-free week:

Day 1: As expected, my hair was a little greasy and looked unwashed. I tossed it in a ponytail and went about my business.

Day 3: My hair actually starting looking better at this point. I didn't look greasy anymore, but it did feel heavy. I brushed it well to distribute the oils evenly and wore it down. No one seemed to notice one way or another.

Day 5: By this point, I thought I would be on the "tail" end of the experiment, with my hair looking better and better each day. But it actually looked worse than ever. It was stringy and heavy ... and something else. I couldn't put my finger on it at first until I reached down to out my dog and realized that my hair felt just like my dog's fur. Mind you, my dog had a bath just two days before this, so his fur was acutally cleaner than my hair. Still, at the risk of insulting him, I have to admit that the similarites were hard to ignore. My hair felt thick and oily, just like my lab/mastiff doggie. I love my dog with all of my heart, but I really don't want his fur.

Day 7: I knew last night that I was done with this little adventure. I was tired of ponytails and tired of feeling my dirty dog hair every time I brushed it out of my face. I was never so happy to see my shampoo bottle.

To be fair, I really don't think I gave this whole 'poo-free thing long enough to impress me. It took the author of Bubble Trouble seven months before she was loving her hair. But I just don't think I could handle waiting seven months for my hair to transform itself from stinky dog hair to shiny, sexy hair.

For my next hair adventure, I'm going to try giving up the commercial shampoo again and washing with a homemade baking soda paste. But not right now. I'm going to enjoy a few weeks of clean hair before I tamper with the 'do again!